Marie

Set among the bustling train stations and narrow rues of 1930s Paris, where the threat of war already hangs in the air, Marie is a hypnotically powerful novel about the interior life of a 20th century woman, suffused with exquisite moments of sensual acuity and profound insight.

Marie is happy. She has a husband whom she adores and she’s easily pleased by the smaller things in life – the drag of a cigarette, a hotel balcony, the scattering of light across the sea.

But while on holiday, she spots a young man lying on the beach and is instantly drawn to him. Their connection develops into a passionate and intense love affair, opening a window into Marie’s untapped desires. As she explores the vibrant immediacy of her yearnings, Marie begins to see her entire world anew.

‘Exquisite, elegant, and nonsentimental . . . Bourdouxhe conveys the sharp, almost physical intensity of thought as experience by a central character suspended between apathy and restless curiosity.’ – Irish Times

‘Bourdouxhe was a writer admired by her contemporary Simone de Beauvoir. It is easy to see why: female autonomy, a delight in Paris and its freedoms, the rapture of living in the present and seizing life with both hands . . . luminous and unforced.’ – Times Educational Supplement

‘An unforgettable, thrilling achievement . . . What this novel does, no less, is stake a claim to Bourdouxhe’s rightful position alongside Proust and Virginia Woolf as an explored of interior life . . . inspiring and impassioned.’ – Sunday Times